Losing Just One Hour

It never ceases to amaze me how losing one hour of sleep can really mess you up when the spring time change comes around. Where I work, a lot of the residents were late for breakfast, and a few even late for lunch, because they kept forgetting the time had moved forward one hour.

I, like millions of other people, had to get up an hour earlier. This after working a 12 hour shift the day before. I didn't get home till 9 pm, had to eat supper and hit the sack. Of course, when you really need to sleep, the body seems to grow very long claws and fangs then fights you every step of the way. I woke up at 1:55 am, worried that my phone wouldn't change the time automatically, even though I knew from several years of experience that it would. Before I knew it, BAMM! 4 am was here and the alarm was going off. I was up and on my way for another 12 hour round.

Work, thank God for small miracles, wasn't too bad, but whew, the tired monster snagged me at 2 pm, demanding sleep... or at the very least a little power nap. No-can-do on the job. I managed to fight him off for a while, but he kept tracking me down every time I tried to sit down to chart.

I thank my lucky stars, what very few of them I have, that this time change thing happens only once a year... and that I don't work a swing shift job. Just don't think I'd be able to do it. Kudos to all you swing-shifters out there.